Joan Mickle Ogden

January 8, 2016

Joan Mickle Ogden passed away peacefully on December 30, 2015 at her home in Madison, CT. surrounded by her loving family and cat Slim. She was 82.

Joan was born in New York City on August 11th, 1933 to Una Whitehurst Mickle and Kenneth Mickle. She graduated from Darien High School in 1951 and received her B.A. in Art History from Smith College in 1955. Thereafter, Joan worked as a Research Assistant at the Frick Art Reference Library in New York City.

In 1958, Joan married Robert S. Ogden Jr. at St. Marks Church in New Canaan, CT. Joan and Bob lived initially in New York City, where he was attending Columbia Law School, and then Pound Ridge, NY. In 1968 the couple moved to London, England when Bob opened the London office of the New York City law firm Donovan, Leisure, Newton & Irvine. Their first daughter, Deborah, was born in 1968 and their second, Karen, was born in London in 1969.

All her life, Joan enjoyed exploring art, culture and history throughout Europe, having had her first taste of Europe during her Junior Year Abroad in Geneva, Switzerland. During their twelve years in London, she and her family frequented the city's museums and galleries, and they loved exploring the great houses and gardens of England, often on bicycle trips. Joan also loved the art galleries and markets in Paris, where Bob's firm maintained an office, on the many occasions they were there.

Joan and the family were avid skiers and they drove through France every year to ski in the Alps. They were active tennis players and were members of Queens Club and The Hurlingham Club.

The Ogdens returned to the United States in 1980 and lived in Riverside, CT for 27 years. Joan pursued her great love of painting at her home studio in Riverside and was a member of the Greenwich Arts Council, The Greenwich Art Society, and the Silvermine Arts Center. She had exhibitions of her works in Greenwich, New Canaan, Darien, Rowayton, Silvermine, and in Manchester, VT. She won numerous awards for her works. As Joan herself said regarding her art: I enjoy placing objects in unexpected juxtapositions and scale to create new feelings about their relationship to their environment and to each other. She thought of her work as part still life and part narrative. And she always felt that My work is evolving as I continue to explore the world around me, incorporating found and treasured objects, artifacts and real elements of landscape.

Joan's creativity also flowed into her love of gardening and flowers, and she was an active member of the Riverside Garden Club and The Garden Education Center of Greenwich. She won many awards for her arrangements and loved conducting flower arrangement workshops for the Garden Club.

In 2007 Joan and Bob left Riverside and became residents of Sanibel, Fl., also living part of the year in Guilford, CT and Chester, VT. In her later years Joan was burdened with problems stemming from Sjogren's Syndrome and other health issues, but she continued to enjoy traveling, friends and her natural surroundings and to have fun with Bob and her two daughters and grandchildren.

Joan and Bob were members of the Riverside Yacht Club and Captiva Island Yacht Club.

Joan is survived by her husband of 57 years, Bob, her sister Lorna Chang Post of Clarksville, MD, her daughters Deborah Ogden of Bridgewater Corners, VT. and Karen Ogden Morse of Norwalk, CT, her grandsons Schuyler and John Morse, and many loving nieces and nephews.

A memorial service will be held at the First Congregational Church in Old Greenwich, CT on Saturday, May 7th at 11:00 am. Donations in Joan's memory may be made to the The Greenwich Arts Society and the Connecticut Humane Society.